Preferred Citation note

Biographical/Historical note

Alfons Horten (f1.1900-1930) was a German businessman at Hagendingen, in Lorraine, connected with the Thyssen steelworks, either as an employee or on a retainer basis. He bore the title "Bergassessor," and was largely concerned with the purchase of ores, mines, and mining concessions. His field of activities extended throughout Europe and into Western Asia. His son Alfons Horten, (b.1907) was subsequently (1976) an industrialist at Duisdorf near Bonn.

Scope and Contents note

The papers consist largely of correspondence between Horten and August Thyssen (1842-1926), his son Fritz Thyssen (1873-1951) and officials of the Thyssen organization. A few items of correspondence with Chancellors Wilhelm Cuno (1876-1933) and Joseph Wirth (1879-1956) are included. Most of the correspondence relates to Horten's efforts to supply Thyssen's steel mills with raw materials, primarily from outside Germany. These activities placed him near the center of events associated with the German foreign policy of economic-based expansion, which characterized German foreign relations in the pre-World War I period, according to Modern European historians sympathetic to the controversial "Fischer Thesis." See Fritz Fischer,
Griff nach der Weltmacht (Dusseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1961). Some items, especially letters from August Thyssen to Horten are preserved in both Thyssen's original handwriting and in typed transcripts.